Toledo, Ohio — The University of Toledo women's volleyball team embarks on its final regular season road trip of the year this weekend, traveling to Eastern Michigan and Western Michigan. Both matches start at 7:00 p.m. and are available on ESPN3.

Toledo at Eastern Michigan, 7:00 p.m. | Live Stats | Watch
Toledo at Central Michigan, 7:00 p.m. | Live Stats | Watch

UT hosted these two teams at the end of September and split the weekend, defeating CMU before falling to EMU. Both matches were three-set sweeps.

With just four matches left in the regular season, Toledo is currently outside the MAC Tournament picture. The top eight teams will advance to the conference tournament, held in Oxford, Ohio from Nov. 15-18. The Rockets (9-14, 4-8 MAC) are one game behind Kent State (12-14, 5-7 MAC) in the standings, but the Golden Flashes own the tiebreaker by virtue of their win over UT on Oct. 12. Three teams sit at 6-6: Buffalo, Eastern Michigan, and Ohio. Toledo defeated Ohio on Oct. 13 and will host Buffalo on the final day of the regular season, Nov. 10.

Quick Hits

• Last year, the Rockets went 0-2 on their road swing through Ypsilanti and Mount Pleasant, but the year before they swept the Eagles and Chippewas on their home courts.
• Maurissa Leonard's name is already all over the Toledo record book, and she's just 24 digs away from breaking her own single-season record (569, 2016). The Oregon, Ohio native already holds three of the top five single-season dig totals.
• Elise Wilcox has tallied double-digit kill totals in her last three matches. She had not reached that benchmark prior to this streak.
• Prior to the NIU match last Saturday, Leonard had recorded at least 20 digs in eight straight matches.

Scouting the Opponent
Eastern Michigan: EMU is 14-12 this year with a 6-6 mark in MAC play. The Eagles are just 1-5 in their last six matches after starting the conference season 5-1.  Cassie Haut has been the most efficient offensive threat in the MAC, leading the league in hitting (.371) while averaging 3.14 kills/set. Alyssa LaFace is second in the MAC with 5.99 digs/set. Eastern Michigan hit .312 in the three-set sweep of the Rockets on Sept. 29 and had three players reach double-digits in kills.

Central Michigan: The Chippewas sit at the bottom of the conference standings with their 2-10 record in MAC matches. Their two conference wins came over Buffalo and Eastern Michigan. CMU is hitting just .164 this season and is allowing 2.34 blocks per set. Individually, Kalina Smith leads the team with 3.14 kills/set and Maddie Whitfield has tallied 0.72 blocks per set. Smith recorded 10 kills in the three-set loss at Toledo earlier this year.